Weimar Republic

Hyperinflation Issues - 1923

By the Summer of 1923, Weimar Republic hyperinflation was
REALLY getting bad. On one hand, the value of the German Mark was
decreasing almost every day, and on the other hand, prices were
sky-rocketing on a daily basis. The effects on the economy and on the
German people were devastating.

By August 1923, with the value of the German Mark
fluctuating from day to day, designing and printing new postage stamps
was out of the question. For the postal service of the Weimar Republic,
there existed a state-of-emergency.

Beginning
in August and proceeding through October of 1923, the postal service
began applying re-valuation overprints to existing stocks of low
denomination stamps. The re-valuations ranged from 5,000 Marks to
2,000,000 Marks.

There are a multitude of
varieties on the stamps and their surcharges shown above. These include
plate varieties, shade varieties, surcharge varieties, imperforates,
missing surcharges, double surcharges, inverted surcharges, postal
usages, etc. This could become an extensive philatelic study, for the
collector that may be interested in specializing in these issues. For
anyone interested in ALL the DETAILS on these issues, please consult the
Michel Deutschland Spezialkatalog Volume I.

The
1923 postal rate table, for domestic / foreign letters under 20 grams,
is shown below. By October of 1923, 2,000,000 Marks wasn't even enough
to mail a single domestic letter, thus by that time, most of the
re-valued stamps, shown in the images above, were all useless.

Due to the rate of hyperinflation, the
previously surcharged issues had become obsolete. This required the
creation of a new series of postage stamps, suited to keeping up with
the rising postal rates.

The stamps shown
above, in denominations from 500,000 Marks through 50,000,000,000 Marks,
were issued in October 1923. Actually, after about two months, these
new stamps were also on the verge of being obsolete. By the beginning
of December 1923, a domestic letter cost 50,000,000,000 Marks to mail,
and a letter being mailed outside Germany cost 300,000,000,000 Marks.

There
are many plate varieties on this set, and, due to the fact that the
frame / background of the stamp was printed in a separate process from
the denomination, there are also many value shifts on just about all the
denominations.

In November 1923, re-valued stamps of the new October issue were released. Some of them are shown in the image above.

In December 1923, hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic ended! A new currency, the Rentenmark, was instituted, and the German economy began to recover.

In
1924, one Rentenmark (or Reichsmark) was equivalent to ONE BILLION
Papermarks of the Weimar Republic hyperinflation period. Exchanging the
old paper currency was futile, and many people, businesses, and banks,
either re-cycled the old paper Marks or threw them in the trash.

The
new series of stamps, again denominated in Pfennig, shown above, was
issued December 1, 1923. They all feature a circular central design,
with the numeral of value printed over it. The numerals were printed
separately from the stamps, so there are also many shifts on this
series. This whole series also exists imperforate and with missing
value numerals. Most of them are scarce and expensive.

It
would be unfathomable to even imagine the effect the hyperinflation had
on businesses that relied on mail advertising, mail billing, mail order
sales, etc., and on people, who may have lost their homes, possessions,
or that may have even starved to death, because they didn't have the
means of paying for food or necessities. History would soon forget the
hyperinflation of 1921-1923, and Germany would once again become a
thriving nation, but the German people would NEVER FORGET
the pain and suffering they endured through this period in history.
Combined with the Great Depression at the end of the decade, that would
result in the eventual downfall of the Weimar Republic.

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